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Post by cyarndt on Oct 23, 2015 17:05:29 GMT
Chapter 5 Question: An engaging classroom to me is one that occupies the attention of all students & offers hands-on activities that allows students to actively participate. I try to ensure student engagement in my classroom by providing clear expectations in my lessons. I also try to use a lot of expression & excitement in my teaching to get children excited about the content & develop a positive attitude towards learning! Expression and excitement at such an early stage in learning is critical! The younger students tend to like to mimic teachers and using songs and hands-on activities keep students engaged in learning! |
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Post by marissao on Oct 23, 2015 18:06:08 GMT
1. To me engagement means finding a way to get students involved in the lesson and they are excited to learn about the topic. Being students’ interested into a lesson is a great way to get them engaged. Allowing students to “feel like the teacher” by letting them use the board and make classroom decisions is a neat way to get the student engaged. Some days I allow my students to work in groups or partners to ensure student engagement while planning my lessons.
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Post by marissao on Oct 23, 2015 18:07:52 GMT
I see I posted this question response in the wrong spot so here we try again! How would I describe engagement? I would describe it as children having fun and enjoying themselves at the task at hand. They are focused and not bored with what they are doing. When I plan my teaching and lessons, I try hard to make them more engaging for them however sometimes easier said than done. I try with activities such as games or other engaging tasks that may get them out of their seats and isnt necessarily a paper pencil task. That is a great way to describe engagement. Making the classroom or lesson not boring is a key element with lesson planning. Getting students out of their seating and moving around give them a needed break. |
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Post by marissao on Oct 23, 2015 18:09:18 GMT
1. I would describe engagement as getting your students actively involved in the lessons you are teaching. In the younger grades, we are constantly using hands on activities and manipulatives to keep our students engaged. The kids need these interactions to relate to many of the lessons. This helps them make a more concrete picture in their mind. The students should be able to link new knowledge to the familiar things in their everyday lives to make learning more meaningful. Students need to connect to ideas they feel will make sense to them. They need important and real information that they can carry over in their daily lives. Some ways I try to ensure engagement is to show them why the things they are learning are important. They apply these to their everyday lives and use their knowledge to problem solve. Through student engagement, we are preparing our students to be their own thinkers and gain independence. I like your point about through student engagement, we are preparing our students to be their own thinkers and gain independence. We want to teach our students to be independent and able to do things on their own, but also know that they can always as for help when needed. |
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Post by paulette on Oct 23, 2015 21:53:29 GMT
I like that part of the statement that says "engagement is like a magnet that attracts learners' attention". Keeping our students engaged is probably one of the most important parts of our teaching. Many teachers have said it well and these are also things that I try to do - hands on, work in groups, getting the students out of their desks, working problems on the board, peer teaching, etc. Trying to help them understand that things that we do in the classroom will be things that they will need in real life. I have a senior that is presently doing a unit on "Living on Your Own". His scenario is applying for a job, finding housing, keeping track of his expenses, balancing a checking account, paying his bills, etc. Hopefully, this engagement will be helpful to him so it can prepare him for life after school.
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tammy
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Post by tammy on Oct 23, 2015 22:24:08 GMT
Engagement is seeing hands waving in the air and students jumping out of their seats in order to ask or answer a question or participate in a discussion. Getting your students engaged involves making them see the reason for the learning and how it relates to them personally. It means making them see the importance of what's going on in the classroom. You need to make sure that all students are involved and you can do that by getting to know your students personally. Knowing their interests can help you help the students make connections to their world.
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tammy
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Post by tammy on Oct 23, 2015 22:27:22 GMT
I see I posted this question response in the wrong spot so here we try again! How would I describe engagement? I would describe it as children having fun and enjoying themselves at the task at hand. They are focused and not bored with what they are doing. When I plan my teaching and lessons, I try hard to make them more engaging for them however sometimes easier said than done. I try with activities such as games or other engaging tasks that may get them out of their seats and isnt necessarily a paper pencil task. I also like to use different activities that get them out of their desks. It makes things more meaningful for them and also help them remember what you want them to learn. |
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tammy
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Post by tammy on Oct 23, 2015 22:39:14 GMT
If your students are not engaged, your students are most likely not learning either. Below are some types of engagement that I could come up with. 1) Being able to connect the material with something in real life. I always get the question, "Why do we have to learn this?" question, so being to let the students know why we need to learn it is important. And sometimes it's not a fancy answer either, specially in higher math courses. Some responses are just plain and simple that they will need college algebra to graduate college and get their degree and this is something that will help you be successful in that class. 2) Getting the students up out of their seats. 3) Provide hands-on materials or tools that they can physically be involved with. 4) TECHNOLOGY! 5) Making connections to previous lessons or foreshadowing of something that may be to come. Some ways that I get students engaged is by having them coming up to the board to answer problems. Or if a student asks a question, call on another student to help answer that students question, rather than having me just answer them right away. And lastly, I've implemented the idea that I learned in the professional development day by asking the student to support their answer rather than just giving them a yes or no answer when they are right or wrong. I also like to have my students support their answers. They're nervous about it at first - thinking they're wrong - but the more they can explain themselves, the more they can show their understanding and it also helps other students grow in their understanding of a topic. |
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Post by noreen on Oct 23, 2015 23:32:47 GMT
“It’s not what you say or do that ultimately matters... It IS what you get the students to do as a result of what you said and did that counts.” This quote is from a Dr. Feldman workshop I attended last year. It made me realize that I can have a great lesson planned, but I need to get all of my students actively engaged in learning process. An actively engaged classroom would have all the students involved in the learning process. Students talking and sharing their ideas and opinions. In the past, I always asked my students to raise their hands to give their responses. In doing that I was getting only 20% of the students actively engaged in learning. Allowing 80% of them to sit back and rely on the "smart kids"(as the other students call them)to answer all the questions. I like to model and support the learn by providing students with the language prompts to the discussion process. The area I struggle with the most is supporting the vocabulary I want my student to take away from the lesson I'm presenting. I like to use: choral responses, partner responses, written responses, and randomly calling on students to all students involved in answering questions.
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Post by noreen on Oct 23, 2015 23:35:00 GMT
Marissa-Getting students moving and giving them brain breaks is a great way to get students involved in the learning process.
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Post by noreen on Oct 23, 2015 23:45:20 GMT
Paulette-I agree the statement "engagement is like a magnet that attracts learners' attention" made me think how important it is to get students' interest and show them how it is relevant to their lives.
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Post by brenda on Oct 25, 2015 4:51:16 GMT
The text says. that we need engagement and understanding as the two essentials for durable learning. One of the things I have used the past years is the lack of a seating chart. If a student is not interacting with the class discussion they will end up sitting next to me in the front so it is their choice. Either you contribute to the class or you get moved up. I try to ask everyone a couple questions and then the most important part is why did for example, Why Did Hitler hate the Jews? In what ways did he try to eliminate any history of these people. I try to everyday start with current events and how they may or will affect us.For example! California became the 5th state to allow doctor assisted deaths. So we discussed this and I tried to put them in the shoes of one who has a loved one and is suffering what would they do for example? I think the part in this chapter on key classroom elements in learning were, content, (curriculum) process and product. Content is what a student should come to know.(understand he concepts and principles) and be able to do (skills) as a result of a given segment of study. So content is imput. Process is the opportunity for students to make sense of the content. An activity is likely to be effective if it (1) has a clearly defined purpose (2) Focuses students squarely on one Key understanding (3)Causes students to use a key skill to work with key ideas (4) Matches the student's level of readiness (5) Helps students relate new understandings and skills to previous ones A product is the vehicle through which students show and (extend) what they have come to understand and can do. culminating products-align knowledge, understanding, and skill emphasis student understanding rather than repetition of knowledge Are accessiable to students with a range of learning needs. I have on occasion given a daily grade based on their output in class using a rubric scoring system. Totally engaged in class askes 4-5 questions and answers many questions. 5 pts. Answers a few questions and answers a few questions 4 pts. Less involved less points. I usually have them assign themselves a grade and we compare and come to a conclusion of what point they should receive. You need to walk around and get down and personal with them. If you hide behind the desk or podium they may do the same thing. Discussing current events is a good way to engage students. High school students should be informed about current events and they should have opinions about current events. All of the seniors and some of the juniors will be voting for our next president! I like your idea about daily grades based on a student's contribution to class discussion, but what about the student that does not feel comfortable speaking up in class and offering opinions? There are those students who are very attentive and very knowledgeable, but also very reserved. They just don't speak up unless forced to. Don, how are these students doing with your system? |
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Post by brenda on Oct 25, 2015 5:05:34 GMT
If your students are not engaged, your students are most likely not learning either. Below are some types of engagement that I could come up with. 1) Being able to connect the material with something in real life. I always get the question, "Why do we have to learn this?" question, so being to let the students know why we need to learn it is important. And sometimes it's not a fancy answer either, specially in higher math courses. Some responses are just plain and simple that they will need college algebra to graduate college and get their degree and this is something that will help you be successful in that class. 2) Getting the students up out of their seats. 3) Provide hands-on materials or tools that they can physically be involved with. 4) TECHNOLOGY! 5) Making connections to previous lessons or foreshadowing of something that may be to come. Some ways that I get students engaged is by having them coming up to the board to answer problems. Or if a student asks a question, call on another student to help answer that students question, rather than having me just answer them right away. And lastly, I've implemented the idea that I learned in the professional development day by asking the student to support their answer rather than just giving them a yes or no answer when they are right or wrong. Getting students out of their seats can really be effective, but I find it can be really time-consuming too. Having a student come to the board to do a problem is a great way to get the other students to pay attention and to also examine the work of their classmate to determine if the problem is being done correctly. |
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Post by rebeccadathe on Oct 28, 2015 13:46:51 GMT
Ch. 5 Engagement is not just recalling information but understanding how you did the project. The students understand the importance of the idea, and how things work. As you develop plans for teaching and learning you hope they can use it, explain, compare, and contrast.
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Post by butler on Oct 29, 2015 2:22:12 GMT
Engagement could also be described as lost in thought. When planning a lesson I try to have student engagement. I have found students are much more engaged when they can get up and move around the room and participate in the lesson.
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